We
flew to Dallas on Thursday morning, November 20th. The flight was fine no real hang-ups however
Riley lost a lower front tooth just as we were about to take off. That was exciting. We picked up our car and drove back to the
terminal to pick up Mona who had come in with Sue, John, and Dan from
Charlotte. We had plenty of room in our
car for everyone and made a quick trip to Denton first stopping in the
neighboring county to buy a bottle of Scotch because Denton County is
“dry”.
We
found the Holiday Inn and unpacked then went over to Kathy and Pat’s for a
barbecue dinner. Pat had a mesquite fire
lit in portable fire place in his driveway which burned through the
weekend. Everyone’s clothes reeked of
mesquite smoke, which was not all that bad.
The dinner was a typical Pat and Kathy feast and everyone ate more than
their fill. Frank, Connie, Jordan and
Connor, and Joe, Lisa, Makenzie, Mason, Jake, and Patricia were there as well. Riley was very involved in a football game in
the back yard where Makenzie gave him a pretty good sized bruise on his cheek
Friday: The next morning most of the kids got into
the pool for a little play as all of the other Barker/Sims clan showed up. Kyle, Rusty, Conley, Avery, Brinna, Jenny,
Rick, Olivia, M, plus Rudy, Dolly, Petra, Kevin and Samantha (and they brought
Alex). At 11:30 there was a Bridesmate’s
luncheon that Mona hosted. It was at a
restaurant in downtown Denton called Hannah’s.
I think there were about 30 ladies in attendance. (Downtown on the square was an 1896
Romanesque Revival Courthouse with many architectural features similar to the
Del Monte) The afternoon was taken up
mainly by visiting before we all regrouped for a “rehearsal dinner” at a
converted roller rink catered by Dickie’s Barbecue. The brisket and ribs were fantastic. There was a big open area for the little kids
to play in and they did. We all got to
the hotel about 10pm.
Saturday: The next morning we planned to meet at the
pool at 9am and just about all the kids were there. At about 11 we got ready to go to the wedding
which was in a church in Lewisville, TX about 20 minutes away. The church was an “in the round” sanctuary
and the bridal party marched in around the edge of the sanctuary before
settling in their seats. The priest was
from down east and shouted several times at the readers that they should cut
that reading or go to another one. It
was entertaining. The pianist/singer performed
Broadway/Disney Gospel music which was so monotonous that every song sounded
exactly like the last. Apparently,
Kathy later said when she asked him about the music he replied that he didn’t
talk to “proxies”. The processional
which was pretty long to accommodate all of the filing in was chorus after
chorus of Jesu Joy. There must have been
20 choruses! Every time the pianist did
something weird (which was pretty often) Jess would turn around and give me the
eye!
After
the wedding there were lots of photos and then we went back to the hotel for
the reception. There were many toasts
and lots of very good food. Miranda got
caught up in a beer drinking game where she was turned upside-down and had to
guzzle beer from the keg. She was not
amused. The festivities continued in the
hotel bar till late.
Sunday
morning many people started to leave. It
was sad to say goodbye. Kathy and Pat
had an after wedding brunch (naturally) and the remaining folk gathered
there. The kids who were left played
more soccer and football.
Monday
morning Joe brought over his kids and we swam for a while. Sue, Mona and I went to the Denton Square to
have some lunch. I took some photos of
the courthouse and we went back to the hotel and picked up the boys and went to
a big park by Kathy’s house where the kids played Kathy and Pat meanwhile were cooking a
fantastic thanksgiving dinner for Sue, Joe, Mona and us. It was delicious to say the least. We all ate too much and flopped into bed
about 10pm.
Tuesday
morning we loaded up the cars (John and Miranda!) and drove off to the airport
for our return to New York.
